Big Day

When I was training for marathons, I relied for several years on Joe Henderson's book "Marathon Training," a 15-week (100-day) program that worked for me.  Every week he would have a chapter called "Big Day," and toward the end of the program my Big Days consisted of successive long runs of 12, 14, 12, 16, 12, 18, 12, and 20 miles.  It was always so surprising - and Martha remarked on this too - that in the last weeks of training we would consider a 12-mile run to be an "easy run."

I can no longer run those long miles, but training for a half marathon is becoming a serious focus for my running, and today I planned to run 12 miles - the farthest I have run in many months, and the last long run I will complete before the race in two weeks - my "Big Day."  So I found myself awaking before dawn and watched the sunrise again.  The day always seems to be bigger when you experience it from the very beginning - the thin gleam of red suddenly appearing on the horizon like a narrow spotlight beam, then widening rapidly into the brilliant arc, finally drifting upward into a clear sky.

The house adjoining our condos to the east was lit up so brilliantly that it looked as if it had burst into flames, and I watched it burn while I did my slow (and now self-conscious) Tai Chi on the deck.  Hello Rita, are you watching me?

A dawn squadron of pelicans was flying due west, as if flung skywards from the sunrise, and they floated by in perfect formation, its leader out in front.

I was well-prepared for the long run - energy gel tucked away in my two key pockets (for you runners out there who may be reading this, I have settled on Black Cherry flavored Shot Bloks in recent years), and the route carefully planned so that I could consume half the package at miles four and eight.  We distance runners can be a little obsessive-compulsive sometimes!

It is difficult to describe to a non-runner what it is like to complete a long training run like this.  The pace was slow and comfortable, and there were plenty of other runners out, including Martha, who met me somewhere around mile four, elated to be completing her first non-stop four-mile run in quite a while; she has finally regained her confidence and is beginning to get quickly back in condition again.  A young couple was preparing to settle their toddler in a jogging stroller at the picnic area, and although he could barely walk, he seemed to want to go with me, following me as I passed by with an enchanted expression (future runner?)  "He wants to come with me," I said.  They laughed, and when I saw them later down near Fort Macon they pointed me out as his training partner.  These little exchanges lift me up as I run the long miles, step by step, mile by miles, waving or saying some encouraging words:  "Looking good!"  "Beautiful day, isn't it?"  I passed an older women walking along the road using a rollator toward the end of the run, which reminded me of my mother.  And the long miles begin to wear and lengthen, the Big Day looms large all around, I fall into the rhythm of a slow, workman-like pace, the easy miles that will pay off on race day, not just in confidence but in time spent on my feet.   As in marathon training, the long run should be completed at a pace one- to two-minutes slower than race pace, which seems counter-intuitive to some.  But I have known at least two very capable first-time marathoners who completely blew up because they completed all their long runs at their planned race pace; they had been running "short" marathons for several weeks before the race.  You can only have one ultimately "Big Day":  Race Day.  Now is the time to build endurance, to put all that strength in the bank and not to withdraw it until Race Day.

There is a wonderful satisfaction from a long run completed as planned, as I have said before in this blog - the deep-down tired legs that will recover in a day or two, the muscle fiber that is already at work growing stronger and more prepared the rest of the day, crying out for protein and fluids.  The perfect time for that spicy Brunswick Stew that Friendly Market makes - an ideal recovery food!

And the other thing about a long run?  I always sleep soundly and peacefully at the end of a Big Day.